I've been cycling the entire length of Carling about 200 times per year for the last five years. Going west, I've gone over the same pair of grates every single time, and wondered why the city hadn't actually done anything about them. I figured they were welded in, needed to be that way for sewer feng shui or something else.
But I decided to email 311@ottawa.ca on June 1, 2009 to report it. Then I travelled for work, went on this bike vacation out west, travelled more for work and thought I'd check in again when I noticed they weren't changed. The city said they had, but they hadn't.
On July 28, I drew out a map and sent it to them.
And I mailed them back, they said they'd change them, and I went away for another business trip, came back, and they hadn't.
Then on Wednesday evening, I took photos. And by Thursday morning at 8:30 they were fixed.
And the moral of the story? Don't suffer for five years assuming that someone else will deal with the problem. If you see a problem, report it. And with a bit of perseverance they'll fix it quite quickly.
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